Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Billy James born William James on April 20, 1936 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  He first came on the jazz scene in the Fifties when he began working with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, with the bandleader thinking the 15-year-old James was already playing at professional standards. He would then go to work with Booker Ervin. In the early 1960s with played and recorded with James Moody, Candido Camero, Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Don Patterson, and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis.

With Patterson, he frequently recorded as a duo, and James led his own groups in the latter half of the 1960s.  He worked further with Stitt during this time as well as with Eric Kloss. Further associations also include Eddie Harris, Houston Person, Grant Green, and Pat Martino.

Billy’s most illustrious performances including the Patterson side righteously titled Boppin’ and Burnin’ and even better, the Boss Tenors in Orbit! sessions in which Stitt duels with Ammons.

Drummer Billy James, whose most distinctive aspect of drumming is an extremely well-disposed shuffle that he seems able to reinvent endlessly, chorus after chorus, passed away on November 20, 2009.

More Posts: drums,history,instrumental,jazz,music